Dave Tell
- Professor
- Co-Director of the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities
Contact Info
Personal Links
Biography —
Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
Rhetoric & Political Communication
Dr. Tell’s research focuses on issues of race, memory, and the public humanities. For over two decades, his work has focused on the memory of the murder of Emmett Till. In collaboration with the Till family, he has created a website, a smartphone app, two museum exhibits, an award-winning book, and a bullet-proof roadside marker to tell the story for the next generation. His work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the National Park Service, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In 2025, he won KU’s highest research award, the Balfour Jeffrey Research Award in the Humanities.
Dr. Tell’s scholarship has a strong public focus. He has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Esquire, and the Chicago Tribune. A record-breaking exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History was based on his scholarship. His work played an integral role in the creation of the Emmett Till and Maine Till-Mobley National Park and he was invited to the White House for the creation of the park.
In addition to the Till story, Dr. Tell is working with survivors and participants to tell a range of hard stories—from the history of Black Kansas City to the integration of the University of Mississippi. He works closely with journalists, graphic designers, computer scientists, documentarians, and community organizers—anyone who can help engage a difficult past in the interest of a better future.
Selected Publications —
Books
Tell, Dave. Remembering Emmett Till (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, May 2019).
Tell, Dave. Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).
Winner: Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award, 2013. National Communication Association
Digital Humanities Products
Dave Tell, “Surprised by Emmett Till,” [online roleplay designed for high school classroom] Serious SIM. Project funded by an NEH Digital Humanities Implementation grant (Christian Spielvogel, PI). July 2019.
Correa, Pablo, Davis Houck, Christian Spielvogel, and Dave Tell. “Emmett Till Memory Project” Field Trip by Niantic Labs. First published February 4, 2016.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (selected)
Tell, Dave. “Measurement and Modernity: Height, Gender, and Le Corbusier’s Modulor,” Public Culture 31.1 (January 2019): 21-43. Lead essay.
Tell, Dave. “Can a Gas Station Remember a Murder?” Southern Cultures. Special Issue: “Things.” (Fall 2017), 54-61.
Tell, Dave. “Remembering Emmett Till: Reflections on Race, Geography, and Memory.” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 20.2 (2017): 121-38.
Tell, Dave. “The Rise and Fall of a Mechanical Rhetoric, or, What Grain Elevators Teach us About Postmodernism.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 100.2 (2014): 163-185.
Public Writing
Tell, Dave. “Emmett Till never feared his killers? No, he died in agony.” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, August 27, 2018.
Tell, Dave. “Till Marker was just 35 days unshot.” Tallahatchie County (MS) Sun Sentinel. August 9, 2018, 5.
Reprinted by Humanities Kansas, August 10, 2018. Till Marker Was Just 35 Days Unshot.
Tell, Dave. “Letter: The Long-Delayed Pursuit of Justice.” The Atlantic Monthly (July 26, 2018)
Tell, Dave and Patrick Weems, “How is Emmett Till Remembered?” History News Network. February 5, 2017.
Tell, Dave. “A Brief Visual History of the Bullet-Riddled Emmett Till Memorial.” Reading the Pictures. November 16, 2016.
W. Ralph Eubanks and Dave Tell, “For Better or Worse, How Mississippi Remembers Emmett Till.” Literary Hub. November 2, 2016.